It is customary practice in the construction industry related to the forming of a concrete structure to rely upon a mold of some type to form a desired volumetric cavity for the concrete to be disposed into and subsequently the concrete curing into the desired shape to form a concrete structural element. This necessitates the creating or assembling of a number of various molds and a multitude of desired shapes and then subsequently disassembling these molds after the concrete has been disposed into or poured into the uniquely shaped mold and cured sufficiently after some passage of time. Thus, in the construction industry related to the forming of a desired concrete structural shape there is considerable repetitive assembly and disassembly of the molds leading to the desire on the part of the construction industry to make this mold assembly/disassembly process as easy as possible. Breaking this down further on this easy mold assembly/disassembly issue it would be further desired that a minimum of time is required, a minimum of tools are required, and a minimum of waste (i.e. consuming disposables) is created.
As an example, in concrete gutter work a “skeleton plate” is used to hold three different lateral forms that can be termed a back form (a double height form), termed a front form (a half height form), and termed a face form (a half height form), so in finished form the gutter back form surface is adjacent to a sidewalk, the from form surface is adjacent to a road surface, and the face form is what is exposed, being typically called “a gutter” as the step upward between the street surface and the sidewalk surface. The skeleton plate in operational to structurally position the front form, the back form, and the face form in a fixed relationship to one another, thus the skeleton place is oriented perpendicularly to the front, back, and face forms, wherein a plurality of skeleton plates are positioned parallel to one another about every linear ten feet or so to hold the relationship as between the front, back, and face forms that extend linearly or laterally for typically hundreds of feet. The other purpose for the skeleton plate is to create proper scoring of the concrete, thus the skeleton plate forms a division plane therethrough the gutter that is perpendicular to the linear or lateral extension of the gutter, the division plane facilitates controlled cracking of the gutter extension due to soil shifting and sinking.
The skeleton plates typically extend partially through the entire cross section of the gutter thus creating a crack line via leaving a “score” channel in about the top one-fourth of the gutter thickness extending from the upper surface of the gutter toward the soil surface below the gutter. A division plate is a skeleton plate that extends the full vertical thickness of the gutter cross section so as to cause a full gutter cross section gap positioned perpendicular to the linear extension of the gutter. A face form lower portion is anchored to the skeleton plate, however, a face form upper portion is typically anchored to the back form via a curb-top spacer bracket that needs to have a “C” shape (with the open side facing downward) to allow concrete surface finish work underneath the spacer bracket, however the curb-top spacer brackets have the drawbacks of having to keep track of separable parts and having to be attached independently to the back form and the face form, causing extra time. As is known in the industry, anything requiring specific attachment, i.e. a bolt through a hole, is undesirable in concrete work as with dirt, sand, moisture, and a partially hardened concrete layer present, makes conventional attachment methods undesirable—this not requiring separate attachment hardware is highly desirable. As the fixed dimensional configuration of the skeleton plate essentially sets the gutter profile, a given skeleton plate can only make a single size of gutter cross-section, as typically the gutter height dimensions are fairly consistent, such as the step height from the street surface level to the sidewalk surface level, however, a platform distance, i.e. the distance as between the face form and the front form can vary in requirements, wherein a conventional skeleton plate has this distance fixed.
In looking at the prior art in this area in U.S. Pat. No. 6,866,239 to Miller, et al. disclosed is a concrete form assembly for forming a concrete structure during drying of the concrete. The form assembly in Miller is formed of an elongated plastic form having a front wall for engaging the concrete and a rear wall, wherein the front wall is spaced apart from the back wall to define a pocket for receiving at least one connecting member. The connecting member in Miller is secured in the pocket to project a distance beyond an end of the form with a slidable wedge type stake holder that may also be provided to slide in a C-shaped pocket in the form. The stake holder in Miller also has right and left flanges that are adjacent to engage the rear wall and at least one preformed nail hole is provided in each of the right and left flanges. See FIG. 12 in Miller for an example of the curb-top spacer bracket 71 that forms a “C” section with the open end facing downward, wherein the “C” section allows for open space to finish the surface of the curb-top with the curb-top spacer bracket being a separate piece.
Further, in the prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 7,185,875 to Jarrett disclosed is an adjustable template apparatus for setting up risers in the manufacturing of concrete steps for enhancing the speed of set up for risers with regard to level and spacing. The adjustable template apparatus in Jarrett for setting up risers in manufacturing concrete steps includes a horizontal member having a first end and a second end; a first vertical member operationally coupled to the first end of the horizontal member, which is extending downwardly from the horizontal member, and is used to selectively abut a lower most riser. Further, in Jarrett a riser positioning member is slidably coupled to an underside of the horizontal member and is positionable along a length of the horizontal member for selectively engaging a second riser; and a second vertical member is slidably coupled to the horizontal member and positionable along a length of the horizontal member, the second vertical member extends upwardly from the horizontal member and is user for selectively abutting a third riser.
Continuing in the prior art, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,846,437 to Fitzgerald disclosed is a mold supporting bracket for supporting concrete formwork upon a supporting surface, the concrete formwork being in the form of an elongate lipped-channel section of the type having a channel web, the front face of which forms a mold wall section. Fitzgerald includes channel flanges extending rearwardly along opposite edges of the channel web and opposed channel lips extending inwardly along the free edges of the channel flanges. The mold supporting bracket in Fitzgerald includes a rigid side wall having a front end portion which when pivoted about an axis normal to the channel web to incline the front end portion relative to the channel flanges is receivable between the channel flanges and the opposed channel lips. Fitzgerald also has an upper recess and a lower opposed recess extending inwardly from respective upper and lower edges of the front end portion and being engagable about the innermost edges of the opposed channel lips upon pivoting the front end portion about the axis so as to locate the lipped-channel section relative to the bracket. Further included in Fitzgerald is a support mounting adjacent the rear end of the side wall and engagable with the supporting surface to hold the bracket and the located lipped-channel section in a selected orientation relative to the supporting surface, the support mounting being in the form of an apertured integral base wall extending substantially perpendicularly from and along the lower edge of the side wall rearwardly of the front end portion. Essentially, Fitzgerald facilitates the nested stacking of lateral forms in building a vertical form wall.
Next, in the prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,131 to Baumgartner disclosed is an apparatus for making concrete forms for creating stairs. A substantially planar member in Baumgartner has a riser end and a pivot end substantially opposite the riser end and has a first side and second side. A pivot point in Baumgartner rotatably fixes the pivoting end to a stringer so that the riser end can pivot with respect to the pivot end. A riser support member in Baumgartner is mounted perpendicular to the planar member adjacent the riser end and extends to each side of the planar member. A kneeboard support in Baumgartner may be placed on both sides of the planar member so that a kneeboard may be placed between one apparatus and a corresponding apparatus on the other side of the stairs. Further, a scale in Baumgartner may be provided for positioning the apparatus with respect to the stringer to facilitate mounting subsequent apparatus to a given stringer, wherein the scale can facilitate the riser support member being selectively slanted to provide a constant toe-in or kickback of the step.
Also, in the prior art in U.S. Pat. No. 7,172,364 to Nicholson disclosed is a dropped curb finisher (i.e. used for driveways) that is for use with a slip form type paving machine for forming continuous curbs and gutters. The dropped curb finisher in Nicholson has a vertical mounting plate, a finishing plate, an end plate, and a vibrator for imparting vibration to the end plate and the finishing plate. The finishing plate in Nicholson extends rearwardly from the bottom edge of the mounting plate and the end plate inclines upwardly from the end of the finishing plate remote from the mounting plate. In another embodiment in Nicholson, the present invention comprises a method of forming a dropped curb with a slip form paving machine for forming continuous curbs and gutters.
What is needed is a simplified retaining apparatus or more specifically a skeleton or full division plate having quick and easy assembly and disassembly, that includes the ability to have an adjustable platform distance and structure to hold the upper portion of the back form to the upper portion of the face form in alignment not requiring a separable curb top spacer bracket, where in the structure to hold the upper portion of the back form to the upper portion of the face form is integral to the skeleton plate eliminating the need for a separable curb top spacer bracket and any tools. This is to eliminate the requirement of any tools or other retaining structure that could be fouled by the presence of concrete, dirt, mud, sand, and moisture.